The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization that assists distressed overseas Filipino workers, lauded the decision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to order the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labor to stop the crackdown on foreign workers without proper work documents for three months, to enable these workers to correct their status.

The announcement was made through the Saudi Press Agency, and was quickly shared by grateful Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia through their respective Facebook accounts.

Susan “Toots” Ople is the youngest daughter of the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople. She has a Sunday column in Manila Bulletin’s Panorama Magazine and Tempo and two public service radio programs, “Bantay OFW” at DZXL RMN 558 every Monday to Friday, 12.30-2 pm and “Global Pinoy” at DWIZ 882 every Saturday from 5.30-6.30 pm.

Filipinos around the world sympathize with the family of Hung Shih-cheng, a 65-year old Taiwanese fisherman killed in the high seas when officers of the Philippine Coast Guard aboard a maritime patrol ship fired at the fishing vessel where the old man was.

Whatever the outcome of the formal investigation, a man’s life perished, and his family led by widow Hung Chen A-lun cry out for justice.

I recall the passionate portrayal of Ms Nora Aunor in that movie where her younger brother was shot to death by an American soldier while rummaging through a heap of garbage. The soldier said he thought the boy was a wild boar. That was cinema. This is real. Raw emotions stoked by Taiwanese media’s relentless reportage have affected 87,000 innocent Filipino workers in Taiwan.These Filipinos who have yet to see the innards of our maritime coast guard fleet, now squirm with discomfort, if not fear, while earning their keep.

Susan “Toots” Ople (born 9 February 1962) is a former Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) undersecretary and an advocate of Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFW) rights.

Toots is the youngest of the seven children of former Labor Secretary and Senate President Blas Ople and Susana Vasquez.

She finished elementary education at the St. Theresa’s College Quezon City in 1974 and finished secondary education at the Sandersky High School in Michigan, USA in 1980. She graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with

Iceberg 1 had a 24-man crew led by a 61-year old Yemeni captain. It was sailing from Yemen to Dubai when pirates aboard speedboats went after the ship, using heavy artillery including an RPG to force the ship to ground to a halt.

This is the story of 31-year old seafarer, Gerald Gonzales, from Iloilo City.

He holds the record for being the longest held Filipino hostage in Somalia.

Gerald boarded Iceberg 1, a cargo ship, way back in 2009 for a 9-months stint as an oiler (all-around shipmate) with a salary of US$350. His contract was to expire on April 12, 2010. But as they say, sh*t happens. Gerald’s ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in March 29, 2010.

Labor attaches and welfare attaches from all over the world gathered for a year-end assessment and planning conference last December at the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City. Former dean of the Asian Institute of Management and labor secretary Nieves Confesor and Professor Ponch Macaranas served as facilitators of the two-day event.

Your first job shapes you. You come in, timid and careful, soaking the environment in while wanting to blend with the wall. Days and weeks after, you passed the first hurdle, a simple task, and made contact with your first-to-be friend and confidante. Life proceeds from there, and your first job becomes a process of self-discovery like no other.

Subsequent jobs are yours to shape. No matter how you lost the first one, the jobs that follow it bear your imprint as a more experienced employee. By this time, you’d know how to extend your hand for the standard pleased-to-meet-you handshake, while easing in your calling card during a conversation with a potential client at the appropriate time. Isn’t this the natural progression for career-oriented people? A career ladder goes upwards, not sideways and certainly not downwards from midway to the bottom rung.

Over five hundred relatives and families of overseas Filipino workers will celebrate Christmas with their own party organized by the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that assists migrant workers, on Wednesday, December 12 at the Ramon Magsaysay Hall of the Social Security System Building at East Avenue, Quezon City from 1 to 5.30 PM.

The Blas F. Ople Policy Center is the NGO partner of a US-based law firm known as Barnett & Lerner. We would like to extend free legal assistance to Filipino workers who may have suffered work-related injury, psychological trauma, sleep disorders, medical afflictions and aggravated medical conditions. Every US base worker, regardless of age, nationality and gender, is covered by an insurance policy obtained by his or her employer under the US Defense Base Act. Unfortunately, not all of our OFWs employed in US military facilities are aware of their rights and benefits under this Act.

If you are a US military base worker or former base worker and would like to know more about the US Defense Base Act, please contact us at the Blas F. Ople Center through e-mail: blasoplecenter@hotmail.com or call 833-5337/833-9562 and look for Jeffrey/Mark. Thank you!

The Ople Center is a non-profit organization that has been assisting distressed Filipino workers since its inception in 2004. One of our roles as a policy center is to speak up whenever an individual such as yourself comes up with a proposal

Here is a link to the video that we in the Blas F. Ople Center created to highlight Mang Fred’s heartwarming reunion with his mother:

Last Friday, Alfredo Salmos finally got the chance to come home to his hometown of Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija to see his mother, Estrella. This reunion would not have been possible had it not been for the concern and vigilance of so many Good Samaritans on

Ople Center urges DFA to seek international community’s help in the rescue of Pinoy seafarer held captive in Somalia for the past 2 years

Mother’s Day may be just a week away but that fact is lost on Aurora Gonzales, mother of a Filipino seafarer who is being held hostage by Somali pirates. Her 31-year old son, Gerald Gonzales, has been in captivity for the last two years after Somalian pirates seized Iceberg 1, a cargo shipping vessel owned by a Dubai-based company, Azal Shipping & Cargo.

The Blas F. Ople Center, a non-profit organization that specializes in labor and migration issues, made a formal recommendation to the Department of Foreign Affairs for an immediate and impartial probe into anomalous practices involving the sale and proliferation of fake birth certificates for irregular Filipino workers applying for Philippine passports in Sabah.

The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that assists distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), called for a congressional inquiry into the state of rescue operations in Syria in light of the first Filipino fatality in battle-stricken Homs.

“We join the nation in mourning the tragic death of an OFW in Homs, Syria. Another hero has fallen, in a war that I’m sure she barely understood and was hardly prepared for,” Susan Ople, the head of the policy center,

Several non-government organizations involved in overseas employment issues banded together to oppose Philhealth Circular No. 022 that would nearly triple the amount of premiums to be paid by overseas Filipino workers by next year.

Philhealth convened a consultative meeting with a handful of non-profit organizations representing overseas Filipino workers this morning. Walter Bacareza, vice-president of its Member Management Group presented the agency’s plans